The cost to build a den for "Naji" is A$6,600.
If we start raising funds now, we could be well on the way to providing
"Naji" with a den when he/she arrives at the sanctuary. Please help us if you can.

Donate to Naji's Den here

Please help us to raise enough money to build "Naji" a den. If you've lived for twenty years in a tiny cage, the great outdoors can be a daunting experience in the first few weeks of release. A den gives these bears what they need most in the world - a safe and secure home and a place to run back to whenever they feel threatened or upset. Inside, they have friends to console them, food to reassure them and hanging basket beds to dream their worries away, before facing the challenges of another new day. Photo shows Jill Robinson feeding peanuts to "Andrew" in his den, following a romp with his friends in the sanctuary forest!

250	425	950	1500	200	2500	3000	3500	4000	4500	5000	5500	6000	6600
We need to raise $6,600. Let's do it!
Amount raised to date $950. We have $5650 to go! Donate HERE!

Remember all Xmas Raffle Entry proceeds go towards Naji's den!!!

Visit the Animals Asia website here.

Just received!......Latest news from Jill Robinson at the Animals Asia Bear Rescue Center, Chengdu, China

Brace yourselves & read this......

Dear everyone,..... what a day. Our hearts were in mouths when Gail and team anaesthetised the first skinny little girl at 9am,
knowing that we were looking at an animal with all the odds stacked against her. With the bear laid out on the surgery table our girl rapidly
turned into a boy in front of our eyes and the room was silent as we looked at his skeletal, battered body. Just 61kgs in weight, with
his back leg missing from a snare or leghold trap, another snare wound running right around his neck, ribs and hips jutting out, withered limbs,
paw pads that looked strangely flattened from lack of fat or fluid and a body so badly dehydrated that the skin stubbornly
refused to lay flat when pinched by Gail. This bear was a mess.

However, Hayley, one of our vet nurses, had a dream that he would beat the odds and still be alive one hour into the health check
- and so it was.... and he was too. The ultrasound examination of S206 revealed an array of gallstones but nothing else of major concern,
except that this badly malnourished and dehydrated bear could still "crash" at any time from a variety of related problems.
We guess that, as often happens, because his free drip wound had healed, he had proved useless on the farm and the farmer had simply
stopped feeding him, leaving him to starve to death.

Little Twiglet (just an affectionate nickname for now until we're sure he'll pull through) woke up, lying on straw in a roomy cage,
with Bev hand feeding him and catering to his every whim. He still isn't out of the woods by a long way, clearly has some sort of
infection raging inside, but despite our initial fears is fighting the odds and is a lot happier than he was yesterday.

A quick but thorough scrub of the surgery and this afternoon it was bear number S207's turn. A bear with the hugest most distended abdomen
we had ever seen, and a foul, foul smell leading some of us to think that he had that most dreaded and incurable of disease -peritonitis.
Weighing in at a healthy 167.5 kgs but looking and smelling distinctly unhealthy Boss, as he was nicknamed, was laid out on to
the surgery table with bloated abdomen proudly pointed to the ceiling. Again, an ultrasound examination showed nothing conclusive
but fluid was drawn from his abdomen into a syringe and the decision was made to go in. Several hours later, with all organs apparently healthy
and looking ok, Boss and his big belly was also tenderly settled into a recovery cage and being prepared for some heavy pampering over
the next few days. This is not the outcome we'd expected at all and it's honestly a relief not to end this day with red eyes and puffy faces as we'd
thought would be the case. We still have another bear with a free drip hole leaking bile and oozing stomach contents - and a major surgery
planned for the morning. But she, and the other bears remaining have good appetites and are filling their bony bodies with food as fast as
Bev and the volunteer nurses can feed them.

Please feel free to send out this update and we'll be doing a proper release etc some time next week once all bears have been cut
out of cages and once we know or can guess better who will survive. Naming will also start next week again once we can be reasonably
sure that sponsors will have their bears hopefully for the long term.

The saddest PS......................... I was just about to hit "send" when Bev came over the walkie talkie saying that she thought Twiglet was dying.
Gail and I went over to hear Bev saying that he had become agitated a few moments before and had begun rattling his food bowl
as if calling for help. When she went in he was gasping for breath and clearly in pain. Gail gave him some Torbagesic pain relief
and Bev and I elected to stay with him for a while. A few minutes later, Twiglet's breathing became shallower and, with Bev
holding his paw and me stroking his head, Twiglet died.

I can't ever explain how we feel at this moment - the farmer who brought Twiglet to his knees will be counting his money thinking how
clever he is, how handsome a profit he's made from these stupid people who buy his dud bears. He won't ever understand that we would have
paid ten times as much to bring Twiglet home, to stupid people who loved and respected him for 36 hours, to friends who told him they
loved him when he died. RIP Twiglet. Jillx

Jill Robinson MBE
Founder & CEO
Animals Asia Foundation

This is what our fundraising for "Naji" is all about. We hope the next shipment of bears due before Xmas will have Naji aboard! In the meantime if you can donate to "Naji's Den" , we & "Naji" will be very grateful!